Global musical diversity is largely independent of linguistic and genetic histories

Nature Communications • Vol/Iss. 15 (3964) • Springer Nature • • Published In • Pages: 1-12 •
By Passmore, Sam, Wood, Anna L. C., Barbieri, Chiara , Shilton, Dor , Daikoku, Hideo , Atkinson, Quentin D. , Savage, Patrick E.

Abstract

Music is a universal but diverse human trait. Using a dataset of 5,242 songs from 719 societies, this study identifies five major dimensions of musical diversity that show patterned geographic and historical structure. The authors then use these dimensions to ask whether they are related to genetic and linguistic relationships from 121 societies. Musical similarities are found to be only weakly related to language or genetic relationships, with stronger links only in certain regions such as Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with further analysis showing largely vertical transmission across generations. Overall, global musical traditions appear largely independent from genetic and linguistic histories.

Samples

Sample Used Coded Data Comment
Global JukeboxOther ResearchersCantometric dataset
GeLaToOther ResearchersGenetic data
GlottocodesOther ResearchersLinguistic data

Hypotheses (6)

HypothesisSupported
Populations that are more genetically similar will strongly predict similar musical traditionsUnsupported, because not strong
Populations that speak more closely related languages will strongly predict similar musical traditionsUnsupported, because not strong
Musical traditions will strongly correlate with either genetic or linguistic similarities.Not Supported, because not strong
Musical traditions will show spatial autocorrelation, such that geographically closer societies are more musically similar than distant ones.Supported
Musical traditions will display tree-like (vertically transmitted) structures, but also evidence of horizontal diffusion (borrowing across groups).Supported
Variation in global music may be explained by either (a) neutral drift (random cultural change) or (b) functional coevolution (adaptation of music to social structures)Unsupported
Documents and Hypotheses Filed By: jonathan.zhang